


Trickster + Huntress = Murder and Justice

by AugustStories



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Awesome Eileen Leahy, BAMF Eileen Leahy, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester Fluff, F/M, Just Deserts, Justice, Revenge, Sam Winchester in Love, even if it's just hinted at, seriously the only ship actually happening is Saileen, the focus is on Eileen Sam and Gabriel, the others are just added to avoid people stumbling into something they don't like, the rest is background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 17:49:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20295529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: God is saved, the world is saved, the bunker is one happy place.Sam could sit back and relax for good but there is a Trickster Archangel creating murder plans with his girlfriend, and Sam isn't sure if to stop or applaud them.Eileen just wants justice for the man who killed her.





	Trickster + Huntress = Murder and Justice

**Author's Note:**

> She deserved better, she always did. She did not deserve to die and least of all the way she did.
> 
> But now she is coming back and I am still so hyped and I will continue to be hyped about this and I also wrote most of this Oneshot high on a fever so apologies. It's a little crazy.
> 
> Also, I love David Haydn-Jones but Ketch was an asshole and remains an asshole and the only way he deserves to come back is so he can finally die for good. He killed Eileen. Among a lot of other terrible things and he deserves to be served his justice for that.
> 
> That it got so murdery is to be blamed on my fever.
> 
> And I'm gonna stop babbling now.

God was saved, the world was saved, the bunker was one giant happy place. Filled with a little more people now and Sam liked it, liked the feeling of real family that was developing now. Adam invading his space in the library and trying to conquer a corner for himself in bickering little brother fights that drove Dean up the wall until he got the 'Mom' voice out and then rounded on them when they pointed it out to him.

When Dean wasn't around, Sam and Adam could nerd out in peace and get into arguments over some stuff or other until their fact checking needed a google intervention to lay down the law. Or alternatively an Archangel intervention if it concerned ancient history or lore, they both had one sitting on their shoulder for a private beg and call, and one time they even got the nearly mindblowing show of their argument turning into an argument between Gabriel and Michael.

All in good nature.

Dean had declared to sleep until the next Apocalypse the moment they had returned back to the bunker after saving the world again but the next morning already he was up and about with about a thousand plans for bunker improvment. Because now they had the time. And apparently there was also nothing more interesting than to teach Jack a billion lessons in home improvment situations. They could never get the boy into a high school, give him the normal life a human teenager would have, but now Jack spent his mornings switching between plumbing, carpentry and controlling his powers, his teachers a very enthusiastic Dean and a rather strict Michael.

Sam found that hilarious.

When Dean wasn't cursing at old pipes or running around the bunker with hammer and screwdriver, he was getting so awfully domestic with Cas that Sam could have melted. It would have been hard to endure if he hadn't had someone to turn to once Dean and Cas forgot the world around them again.

And speaking of his awesome girlfriend, Eileen seemingly had an agenda of her own running.

Pathetically enough it took Sam about a whole week until his brain caught up to the fact that spotting Eileen in deep conversation with Gabriel away from other people was maybe worth a question or two. He wasn't jealous, for one because he was happy with Eileen and knew rather well that she was happy as well, and Gabriel was only after Rowena these days anyway.

  
So what was going on there?

Dean shrugged and only told him that his angel bestie might be getting to know his girlfriend. Which, okay, not that he would be complaining about that but why tuck themselves away into quiet corners for that, and also switch the topic the moment Sam approached them. Cas didn't really help Sam's budding paranoia when he reminded him of how much Gabriel liked to play tricks and pranks on people.

Sam spent the following afternoon fully convinced he was gonna end up at the butt end of the prank of the century.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

It was Adam who brought him onto the right track as they spent an hour after lunch looking through some lore books. Hell and Heaven were in order again, but some monsters still remained on Earth. And maybe no one on Team Winchester was keen on going out hunting again this soon after they had battled maybe the biggest monster of them all possessing God of all people, but it didn't keep cases from existing. Sam could help out with research while his tired bones and exhausted instincts still recovered.

"Who are Gabriel and Eileen planning on murdering?" Adam asked him entirely casually out of the blue and Sam dropped the heavy book on werewolves right onto his left hand, biting back a curse when the pain spread like lightning up his arm.

"What?" He wanted to know in utter confusion a good few seconds of mind freeze later and Adam blinked at him, head cocked to the side. "Who is doing what with whom?"

"Gabriel and Eileen. I overheard them last night while you were in the shower." Adam began to clarify and Sam's mind was on a rollercoaster. "He told her that her plans were improving but that it was still not... vicious enough." Sam stared at Adam who smiled in almost an apology for those tidbits of information.

What the fuck were Gabe and Eileen up to?

"Excuse me, Adam," Sam began and pushed his chair back to get up onto his feet, "I believe I will have to find some people to ask some questions." Adam snorted and then went back to the laptop in front of him. Adam's approach to helping out with research usually meant trying it for an hour with books and google before sending up a prayer that either got answered right away or after he had pouted long enough over the silent treatment.

Michael certainly didn't give anyone else favors like that.

Sam blew out a breath, cleared his mind and then started a treck around the bunker to find his wayward girlfriend and the Archangel who seriously needed a heavenly mission before he went bonkers on them with boredom. He passed by Dean balancing on a ladder to do something with the lights in the main corridor, Cas standing by with one hand on the ladder and the other flipping through his phone. Jack was playing video games in Dean's man cave. The kitchen was empty, Sam's and Eileen's room was empty so unless they had now sought out truly secretive places in the bunker Sam knew where to find them.

He flicked the light switch twice the moment he was standing in the doorway of Gabriel's room in lieu of a knock working on both people equally. Two heads swivelled around to stare at him and only when he could be sure that Eileen's eyes were on him did Sam start speaking, hands moving at the same time. "Who is gonna die?"

"No one," Gabriel answered him and signed in such an instinctive response of 'wasn't me' fake innocence that Sam scowled at him. "Why would someone be dying?"

"Don't make me have my little brother rat you out to your big one, Gabe." Sam warned him because the last thing he really wanted was Gabriel dragging Eileen into trouble, he was not going to stumble head over heels into some mess when they finally had some control back over their lives. "Adam overheard you two talking murder. I wanna know who is getting killed." He looked away from Gabriel's growing smirk to focus on Eileen but her face wasn't giving anything away, soft smile on her face that worked well in almost succeeding to distract him.

"We are just serving someone their just deserts," Eileen explained all casual and happy and loose and something in Sam still sent heavy shivers down his back and right into his blood because what the fuck. He stared at Eileen, took in the content tug of her smile growing bigger, the relaxed posture of her sitting cross-legged on the end of Gabriel's bed with a tablet in her hands, surrounded by papers with scribbled notes. He stared at Eileen and those bright eyes of hers, filled with determination and satisfaction.

"Hearing those words out of _your_ mouth is very disconcerting." Sam deadpanned at the woman he loved so much, hoped his eyes portrayed his tone of voice as well, but he also couldn't help admit to himself that it was also kinda hot. "Who is getting their just deserts then?" And yeah, that just didn't go past his lips without feeling slightly wrong. A brief glance down to where Gabriel was sitting on the ground with even more papers showed Sam that the Archangel was looking like the cat who got the canary, slap happy and smirking.

Whatever the fuck was going on Gabriel enjoyed it very much.

Adam was so going to have to ask Michael to give Gabriel something to do before one of them got killed in their sleep for funsies.

Or Sam could nicely ask Rowena to come back early from her trip home.

Gabriel and Eileen exchanged a look and Sam began to tap his foot against the ground, drawing his eyebrows together in a beginning frown. He was gonna get to the bottom of this before Dean got wind of this and got whipped out of his cozy home fantasies. Or before Jack decided he wanted to get involved because it looked fun. Chuck was gonna come down on them for real if he found out that his grandson chose "serving just deserts" as his new hobby.

"I'm waiting."

"Ketch," Gabriel said then and ducked away from the quickly balled up piece of paper Eileen threw at him. He raised his hands and shrugged at the same time. "He would have found out eventually. And I told you from the start to let him join in." Sam was still too busy blinking in surprise at that turn of events.

This wasn't a prank.

They were actually really planning a fucking murder.

What the hell.

"You're planning on killing Ketch." He spoke it out like the finished plan it already seemingly was in their heads and when Gabriel nudged his head towards Eileen, Sam looked to her, too.

"He killed me." Eileen reminded him completely unnecessarily as if Sam had ever been able to forget that in the too many times they had since been forced to work with Ketch because he had been useful or just not gone away. Maybe Dean had found some bloody fucking common ground with the guy but Sam hadn't, Ketch had remained a tool to be used.

Never an ally.

"He spied on me for months, had people follow me, terrorize me. And then he send his hounds after me. I don't care if he is an ally now, I want justice." Eileen made her case and Sam felt all resolution of stopping this melt away in the light of how much she was longing for it. Ketch had been around only briefly in their fight against the Empty and their mission to save Chuck and the world from dying but even two days had been enough to have had Eileen angry and withdrawn. Sam felt guilty for not seeing it earlier or connecting the dots, guilty that Eileen had chosen to go to Gabriel with this instead of to him first.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He wanted to know from her, walking over until he could kneel down on the ground in front of her, setting his hands onto her left knee. Eileen smiled a little softer and brought a hand up to cup his face.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to say no." Eileen confessed to him and Sam sighed, he wasn't exactly a fan of taking revenge and violent avenging but he was also sitting in a glass house.

The day he had led the raid on the British Men of Letters, he had shot to kill not only because they were after them and wouldn't hesitate to murder each and every hunter they could get. He had also shot with a vengeance because of what they had done to Eileen, because they had taken Eileen from him, another woman he had dared to love, not taken by monsters but by humans.

"I wouldn't have said no. Not with Ketch." He clarified for her and Eileen ticked up an eyebrow, Gabriel remained silent for once. "He is a bastard. What he did to you... What he did to my Mom... what he watched being done to Gabe for weeks before interfering..." They both glanced over to Gabriel who stared down at his hands. "He deserves to pay for it."

"He also helped you out now," Eileen argued but Sam shook his head, moving his hands until he could grasp hers, one in her lap, the other still cupping his face.

"Always to his own gain, he never does anything without wanting something out of it. How long have you been thinking about this?" He asked her gently and Eileen didn't have to think long for an answer.

"The moment I came back. It was my second thought almost. Finding you, ending Ketch," Eileen told him and Sam swallowed through the blob of guilt in his chest, he had made her work alongside Ketch. "I can see what you are thinking and saving the world from ending took priority. But now where I know that even Dean doesn't consider him a friend... Sam, I have to do this, he killed me."

And Sam made a decision that he knew didn't come easy.

He looked to Gabriel and waited until golden eyes were looking back at him again, "don't let her get hurt. I swear, Gabe, if she comes back with so much as a scratch on her..." he couldn't finish before Eileen dragged his face back towards her with a hand in his hair.

"I can look after myself," she insisted and pushed a finger against his lips when he opened them to talk. "I know it is Ketch and I will be careful but Gabriel is my _sidekick_ in this, not the other way around." Eileen made her point and Sam wrenched a hand back to stop whatever comment was about to bubble past Gabriel's lips. "I won't hide this from you anymore, Sam, if you want but I'm not letting anyone stop me."

"Which would include Adam keeping his mouth shut in front of Mikey," Gabriel threw in joyfully and Sam grouched because that was gonna be fun to achieve. "And you not telling Dean or Cassie because they would only spoil the fun." That one was easy, Dean was happy to avoid everything that only remotely looked like it concerned a hunt, no one was calling it retirement but frankly, that was what he had done. And Cas could usually be counted on to not wanting to get involved in whatever scheme Gabriel had going as long as it didn't involve Dean.

"You got me quiet but I can't give you a definite promise on Adam there. Michael and him gossip worse than anyone I know." Sam reminded them with a chuckle, it was weird, every single time he stumbled upon the oldest Archangel casually sitting at the kitchen table while Adam fixed himself a snack and they ranted to each other about what was bothering them. Sam was glad that Adam got to keep the comfort that had kept him from breaking in the long long years in the Cage, and it certainly felt good to know that the Prince of Heaven was on their side now thanks to Adam alone but still, weird. "You really think Michael would stop you though? I mean, I know he is being all about balance and not getting involved in human agendas unless the world is ending again but he's still your big brother and Ketch..."

"Michael doesn't know about Ketch's presence in what Asmodeus did to me," Gabriel surprised him and Sam stared at him, ignored the stutter in the other's voice over the Prince of Hell's name as he always did. Eileen began to collect the loose papers while Sam turned to fully face Gabriel.

"You're kidding me. He doesn't know?" He asked and Gabriel shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal that he hadn't told his brother the full disclosure over what had been done to him.

Sam knew, through conversations with Gabriel himself and also Adam, that Michael was toying with the idea of asking Chuck to reanimate Asmodeus just so he could smite him himself this time around, slowly.

"If I had told Michael about Ketch, Ketch would have been," he snapped when he didn't find a word and Sam blinked at him, waiting for something to make sense. "And that satisfaction of ending him belongs to Eileen now. It's the same reason you're not there squeezing the life out of his throat, isn't it?" And yeah, touche, it was.

"Alright, I get it, but you need to tell him afterwards," Sam insisted and Gabriel made a face at him, joker mentality aside Sam had always understood the real personality behind the smirking facade in Gabriel. The little brother.

But Jack and Adam's return had Sam also learn what it meant to be the big brother, he could understand both sides now.

"Stop being so grown up, Sam," Gabriel complained and shoved the last pieces of paper together, "are you gonna help us now or..." Gabriel also tested the waters once he could be sure Eileen was looking at them again, Sam shook his head.

"Nah, I think you two got that covered. If you need anything, even if it's just distracting Dean or Cas, just ask." He assured them though and cashed in grateful smiles, "and now excuse me, Gabe, I'm gonna steal my girlfriend for some alone time."

\--

Four weeks after Sam finding out about their plans, Gabriel returned from setting the first step into motion. He was in good spirits when he swung himself into the library and met Eileen's eyes.

"And we're off," he told her with a big grin, too late noticing the 'mission abort' gesture that Sam made behind her. Gabriel frowned at him and only then looked at the other people present in the room. "Ah, damn."

"Hello, brother," Michael greeted him and Gabriel sighed, "you wanna tell me why you have gotten so heavily invested in serving out just deserts to people who killed your friend before you even knew them?"

Okay, so, he didn't know the full picture then?

"Just being helpful." Gabriel evaded answering the full truth and he could see that Michael wasn't buying it at all, thankfully Jack appeared and declared himself ready to go. Michael got to his feet and pinned Gabriel down with a 'we'll discuss this later still' look before he flew off with Jack following him. "That was close, thanks for no warning." He grumbled when they were alone again and he dropped down into the chair Michael had abandoned. Sam rolled his eyes and went back to his laptop, Eileen though kept his eyes on him. "Everything worked out the way it was planned. He heard about the haunting from his contact and got trapped in the house. I'll go back tomorrow to see how he is doing."

"Have you two counted in that a hunter might hear about the haunting and decide to investigate?" Sam asked without really paying attention to them, his new motto was plausible deniability.

"Garth sent out word to avoid Phoenix and the surrounding counties for the next weeks," Eileen explained and Sam blew out a breath in the way only a Winchester could. "Singer told his people the same."

"I still haven't decided if you two working so well together in this makes me happy or scares the crap out of me," Sam mentioned before closing his laptop down. "I'll go and find Dean to ask for dinner plans so you two can have your... mission debrief." Sam kissed Eileen and slapped a hand to Gabriel's shoulder before he left for the corridor and began calling for Dean, on some days it was a game of Marco Polo with the older Winchester whose continuing endeavors to fix the place up had him discover unknown regions.

With Sam gone, Gabriel put on a satisfied smirk and raised his hands to sign, "I got him good already, he actually went for the house yesterday already. I staid an extra day to play around a little." Though he was in it to help Eileen achieve the inner rest that killing Loki had brought him, Gabriel couldn't deny that bringing Ketch to an end would fulfill something in himself as well. The man might had freed him from Asmodeus' clutches but he had also watched for weeks while he had been tortured.

And afterwards he had learned about the other things the man had done to the Winchesters, Ketch wasn't a good guy. And Gabriel wouldn't stand by and watch Ketch hurt someone else in the future, let alone wait it out until the man turned on the Winchesters again. Sam and Eileen deserved to be happy finally. Dean had chosen to retire and he deserved to get this chance of making himself a life away from the Supernatural with Castiel. It might maybe be worth it to see Ketch try something on Adam, only to sit by and watch the wrath of Heaven's strongest angel come down on the asshole.

But Eileen needed to get justice, he had seen that in her from the first moment he had met her after he had been sprung from the Empty by Jack.

She was an amazing woman, took strength in her physical limitations and didn't let it stop her at all. Eileen's sense for justice had been a driving force in her right from the start, the hunt for the banshee who killed her parents and later on becoming a huntress herself. She wanted to see wrongs righted and that was one of the reasons why she fit so well with Sam, why they worked so well together, aside from the fact that Sam Winchester melted into a puddle of goo whenever she smiled at him. She had the Winchester giant at the tip of her fingers and Gabriel knew that she knew it, and it might have been a worrying thought over someone having such control over his best friend.

But Eileen loved Sam just as much.

She just needed this closure.

And even without his own history, Gabriel would have gladly offered up his services.

Eileen had quickly become his friend as well and she would get to live happy and not paranoid of the day that the man who killed her walked back into the bunker to mess with their lives again.

"Did he have the hounds with him?" Eileen wanted to know and her hands shook slightly, every hunter had that monster they would always twitch at.

"No," Gabriel could take that worry away from her though, "I checked every place we knew he had, they were nowhere. He must have actually gotten rid of them. And if they do turn up at some point in this quest, I will deal with them. Sidekick or not, I'm naming that my responsibility." He made clear and Eileen inclined her head in gratitude, he wanted her to get rid of one trauma and not add another.

"Have you set an alarm for five days so we won't forget to let him out again?" Eileen asked him next and Gabriel nodded but also chuckled because one day more or not wouldn't exactly bother him much. Eileen wanted Ketch's paranoia through the roof, she wanted him suffering from insomnia, she wanted him frightened of his own shadow.

Like she had been.

Being trapped in that haunted house for about a week was only step one in that first phase of their mission.

Having a partner in serving just deserts was so much fun.

"He'll be out before we move on to the next step." He compromised in his answer because he admittedly had the tendency to get distracted easily, Eileen was way more disciplined. "Have you given thought to the location for the big finale? I can do some digging and find out where you died if you want a full circle but if the place doesn't matter to you I'll find something scenic." Eileen leaned back in her chair to put thought into it right then and there.

"Sam will want to be there, he's been hinting at it and I don't want him to return to the place I died," she pointed out, eyes going soft and a little heavy as well. Sam had endured enough, reminding him of Eileen having died just so make a desert more just than it already was would just be plain cruel. "You can pick the place I think but don't let it become a beach. I want to take Sam on a vacation when we're done with this, he hasn't seen the ocean since Stanford." Eileen smiled in the end and he swore to himself that he was gonna assure that those two would have the calmest most undisturbed vacation ever. Not even a single cloud would darken their days.

"Got it," he told her, a part of his mind already flipping through the US countryside from North to South, "and Eileen? If at any point you decide that you can't go through with this, for whatever reason, please tell me. I want you to feel better, not worse."

"I want Ketch to pay, Gabriel."

"And he will, but he will pay whether or not you lead the hunt for him yourself. Sam was right a few weeks ago, one word from me and Michael will go apeshit on Ketch. And Ketch will suffer. I respect that you want to take justice for your suffering into your own hands, believe me, I do support you in all of this," he pointed it out because they had talked about his vengeance on Loki and his sons in detail. "I just need you to promise me that you tell me if you get overwhelmed."

"My only worry at the moment is that Sam won't be okay anymore with this once we really get going," Eileen confessed to him and Gabriel hesitated for a moment before he got out with the thought he immediately got to her concerns.

"Did Sam ever tell you about what he did after Mystery Spot?"

"He hunted you so you would bring Dean back," Eileen showed in her answer that Sam had not told her the full picture so Gabriel smiled and flexed his wings when he heard steps approaching the library from the corridor. Light ones, slightly dragging, a tired Adam then.

"Ask Sam about that time again when you're alone later, you might learn something to ease your worries there," he put it cryptically on purpose because in the end it was still Sam's right to tell that part of their shared history. "I'm gonna head out, see to it that Ketch doesn't die too early. Pray if you think of something to go over."

He zapped himself away as Eileen nodded, just as Adam rounded into the library.

\--

Eileen waited with asking at the right moment until after dinner when Jack had returned from Heaven and had drawn Adam into video games in his room. Dean and Cas were watching movies in Dean's man cave and Sam had happily accepted her offer of a moonlight walk.

What started out as hand-holding quickly turned into him sliding an arm around her shoulders to tug her into his side as they walked along the untouched land around the bunker. Cas and Jack had started to turn some of it into a garden, Dean had made plans to hide it from view with natural sources as Cas had asked for and Eileen could see the beginnings of it up on top of the actual bunker.

She didn't know how official the boys wanted this place to become but it would definitely no longer remain the abandoned mess it was still now. She didn't pull Sam in that direction though, as much as Cas' garden was already a place of peace, she wanted to head out into the wild fields with only the stars above them. Sam was relaxed, she could feel it, he had slept through the last nights like a rock finally, had even grunted over the alarm this morning and refused to let her get up for another fifteen minutes.

She let them wander for some more minutes until they had left even the last tree behind and were surrounded only by late blooming wildflowers. She tugged him to a stop and placed herself just right for him to wrap her in his arms from behind, letting her fall back against his chest, soak up the warmth that was always coming from him. He leaned his face against the side of her head and she knew he would have closed his eyes, breaths coming deep and slow.

He was worlds away now from the haunted hunter he had been when she had first met him.

Guilt had been taken from his shoulders.

He had saved the world again but this time he hadn't paid for it and neither had anyone he loved, instead Chuck had brought the kid back who in some way had been Cas', Dean's and Sam's right from the start. By now Sam had let Dean and Cas take the parental responsibilities, had rather chosen the big brother spot in Jack's life. And as important as Jack's return had been to heal bleeding wounds, it was whom he had brought along who had shifted something in Sam to fit even better still.

Sam had lacked what his brother had had for so long, a best friend. A best friend who wasn't his brother.

Sam had needed his own guardian angel.

When she had stood in the war room and had watched how Sam had hugged the man who had come with Jack and Chuck, she had almost felt another great piece in her beloved hunter's heart be knitted back together again. Gabriel had stolen himself into her heart quite surprisingly quickly as well, Sam had only chuckled and told her that he had a talent for that. And just as quick Gabriel had sensed that there was something she needed to do for herself to find peace.

Killing Ketch.

Which brought her back to now.

She felt a little bad for interrupting the butterfly kisses Sam had begun to brush against her skin behind her ear but she wanted to ask her question before she chickened out again. She turned around in Sam's arms and went up on her tiptoes for a quick kiss before she began to sign, it was still light enough thanks to the many stars and the moon that she had no trouble reading Sam's lips, he wouldn't need to let go of her.

"I want to ask you something about the past that Gabriel brought up," she started and Sam grimaced only briefly before he nodded for her to go on. "I told Gabe that I might have worries over how you would react once we really had our plan going on. And he told me to ask after Mystery Spot."

"I got obsessed," Sam told her and the look in his eyes told her that he was speaking quiet and soft, regret was there but also acceptance, it had been a long time ago and things were good now. "Nothing else counted but hunting down the Trickster." He didn't say Gabriel, because for once he hadn't known back then and the Trickster hadn't been the man who was his best friend now. "I lost contact to Bobby, I didn't care about myself anymore, about cases or saving people. All I could see was me killing the man who had cost me Dean. I got bad, Eileen, really bad. But you're not me and you're not going at it alone, you're not letting it control you. And I know I can count on Gabe to step in if anything gets to be too much." He took one hand away from her back and stroked a strand of hair out of her face, letting it rest on the side of her face afterwards, thumb stroking over her cheekbone, Eileen leaned into the touch. "You have my support, I told you that already. I'm not gonna stop you or stop looking at you differently."

"Are you sure?" She pressed and pushed because she needed him behind her, as much as she wouldn't let anybody take her away from this hunt for justice, she didn't want to lose Sam over it. That was the one thing it wouldn't be worth. Sam smiled and moved his hand to pull her chin slightly up, stealing a couple of sweet kisses.

"I want Ketch to pay, I've always wanted it. And now that you're back, there is no one who deserves it more. What he did to you is unforgivable." He pointed out and his eyes flickered with a flame of the same anger she felt before it got wiped away again by that melted sweetness he always looked at her with.

Dean called that look, 'hooked, whipped and domesticated giant puppy.'

"I just don't want you to get hurt," he added after a pause and she moved her hands under his unzipped jacket, stroking up his chest over his shirt until she could cup his face on both sides. Her heart skipped at the sight of the goofy bright grin he got whenever she did that.

"I won't," she promised because that was the top condition Gabriel had given her before he had agreed to help her, become her sidekick, he reserved himself the right to step in at any time if it concerned her health. "Gabriel will make sure of that, you know you can trust him." He would never let anything happen to her. "And I want you to be there, once Gabriel and I had had Ketch running enough. I want you to be there when I kill him."

"If that is what you want, I will be there." Sam told her and then leaned down for a real good kiss, the one where he started out slow and careful but then pulled her closer and closer, slid a hand into her hair. She chuckled when they broke apart again for air mostly and pulled back just enough so she could look at him, Sam was drunk on love and lust and the sight of that brought up a thought she had only entertained in jokes so far. But was she maybe onto something?

"You're getting turned on by the revenge plans." She stated it as fact, didn't form a question, and the way Sam blushed right under her hands, right there in front of her, eyes getting shifty and him biting down on his bottom lip, it was all the answer she needed. "Oh my, you're liking this!" She laughed and wriggled a leg between his, causing his hold on her to get a little tighter.

"You making murder plans, preparing to kick ass, hunting down an asshole of a human being, yeah, I cannot see how that could be a turn on in any way." Sam was deadpanning again, his eyes told her that, he also pushed further against the small of her back, drawing her closer.

"Prepare yourself, Samuel, our resident Archangel wants to give me some combat lessons," she cheekily confessed to him and Sam's eyes turned dark, Eileen smirked in full victory. "Wanna head back?" He could only nod.

And they didn't really get very far either until Sam picked her up, backed her up against a tree and kissed her senseless for a while.

\--

"Raise your arm higher and remember to swing from your hip," Gabriel tugged at her elbow and then got back into position, "okay, come at me again." She swung and the sound of blades crashing against each other was pure music, she smiled and moved back again. She didn't care that Gabriel was only using a flicker of the strength he had, she wasn't gonna go up against Archangels or angels, her target was mostly human.

In the corner of the room they had turned into a trainings room, Sam shifted again and Eileen let her smile turn into an even more satisfied smirk. After all the hours they had already put into this in preparation for the final confrontation, she was beginning to think that Gabriel kept on insisting on more simply to see Sam squirm and start sweating. Eileen wasn't complaining, she got to reap what came after, and that certainly didn't leave her unhappy.

"Alright, good, good, form is sitting. Last step is seeing to you getting the right kind of weapon, I'm leaving the guns to Sam," Gabriel mentioned and they both glanced over to where Sam was pretending to be busy on his phone. "He's got more experience there. But if we want to make it up and personal, a knife is the better weapon of choice and that's my department. I liberated some from the armory."

"Ours or Heaven's?" Eileen wondered and watched Gabriel turn to the bag he had turned up with today, he unzipped it and revealed a handful of sharp daggers and blades.

"See," Gabriel signed when he was straightened up again, "I love these boys but they have a tendency to stick to what they're used to. Angel blades, demon knife. They have no flair for style, they're pragmatical. Murder can get a flair of dramatics and beauty, too." Eileen laughed and Sam blinked at her, having missed the wordless exchange. Gabriel grabbed two blades, an angel blade with more decorations to it than the ones she knew from the boys and Cas, and another blade that looked very similar to Gabriel's own. "Both of them are angel blades. Created by angels who had a little more eye for style than the common soldier has."

He handed them to her and Eileen shifted them around in her hands, tested them out, fully aware that Sam was eying her with a razor sharp focus now.

"Test them out a bit." Gabriel told her and then made crooked finger gestures in Sam's direction who set his phone to the side and came over to them. "Alright, Eileen. Once you made your pick, you're gonna put him on his ass. Ketch is taller than me, you need to get a feeling for that. And Sam?" Gabriel waited until Sam's round eyes were looking to him, Eileen could barely hold back her smile because Sam's head was only half in the game. "Try to not embarass yourself too much." Sam scoffed and immediately straightened up more, focus coming back into his eyes. Gabriel materialized his blade and swung it around for Sam to grab, "if you make it easy for her and don't go full strength, I'm gonna tell Dean and Adam."

"You suck."

"Don't make your girl jealous," Gabriel grinned and Eileen stopped it from escalating into another bickering war by handing Gabriel back one of the blades, she preferred the longer silver blade to the golden twisted one. "Give me a show."

Sam was still rolling his eyes when she attacked without waiting another breath and he only just in time managed to block her. They both had hunted all their lives, had been fighting longer than people their age should have in experience but Sam's enemies and Sam's hunts had always been more serious than hers in the past. She hadn't known angels and demons existed until she had met him, her monsters had been more the usual run of the mill kind.

Eileen grinned when Sam stopped hesitating a few seconds in and really went for it but as Gabriel had taught her she used her assets to her full advantage. Being smaller didn't mean being weaker, being a woman didn't mean being weaker. Sam had strength on her, he had raw experience on her but Eileen had speed and agility, neither of which he could achieve with his height. And she wasn't exactly beyond playing a little dirty either, she wasn't preparing for a show fight to gain points for victory, she was preparing to kill her murderer.

Sam's breath whooshed out of his chest when she pinned him to the ground in an unsuspecting drop and he stared at her with open lips and glazed eyes. When she made a glance up to get a compliment or two from her teacher, Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. All the better because in the next moment Sam dropped the blade in his hand, swiped hers away as well and then wrapped her in a crushing embrace that sent heat flushing through her system. His broad hands roamed over her back and she smirked right into the kiss until her eyes fell shut when Sam pressed a leg between hers.

They would definitely continue this after Ketch was dead.

\--

As the days progressed, Gabriel offered her to come along when he checked the progress of their mission and sometimes Eileen accepted and let him fly them over to what part of the country he had trapped Ketch in then. It was a distance to go still until they had Ketch in a secluded forest in a national park in Michigan where no one would be accidentality crossing their paths.

Eileen took no satisfaction in seeing Ketch's slow descent into not trusting his own instincts anymore. There was no joy she took from it. She had been in that position three years ago, had doubted her every step and action, had trusted no one anymore who had looked at her. Paranoia had ruled every waking and even more every sleeping minute until she had not been able to close her eyes anymore for longer than five minutes, until sleep had only come when her body had been too exhausted to go on.

She wanted Ketch to feel that helplessness, to feel that soul despairing feeling of eyes and ears on you at all times. And maybe Gabriel had dialed it up a little but Eileen didn't care. She wanted Ketch to feel scared, just like she had been. To feel alone, just like she had been. He deserved the crippling sense of being run into a trap.

Most of the time she was able to shake it off and return to the bunker and get about whatever was happening on the day, whether it be helping Sam with research for someone or letting Jack lure them into some new game he had learned. Sometimes though she got stuck in memories, of feeling that helplessness or that terror of her last moments before nothing. Sam was always there then, right away, distracting her, taking her someplace nice or just reminding her again and again that she was safe.

Dean also proved a great help in those moment, disregarding that he had no idea what was going on and that he just looked so happy nowadays to have closed the chapter on hunting, he could still spot it easily if someone just needed to escape their own head for a moment. He was working hard on making the bunker a real home and had by then reached the part where he was knocking down walls to have the living quarters look less like a dormitory. After a really bad night, Dean busied her with writing down or drawing him what she wanted done to make this her home, too.

"I can't work with Sam's 'I just want her to be happy'," Dean told her and showed her what he had already done next to the kitchen, a real dining room that wasn't the library or the war room. He had knocked down walls and raised up new ones to turn the living quarters into a private family part and one for guests to stay in. Eileen got to thinking and handed him her notes and little scribbles after a few hours with a clear warning to not tell Sam anything until he was done.

Making plans for the future felt freeing.

She wouldn't be able to leave the hunting for good as Dean had, and she knew that Sam felt the same way, this was their live and she wanted to go back onto the road and work cases after Ketch had stopped breathing but she also wanted this home, this family.

\--

Two weeks later the day had come, after months of chasing Ketch all over the country and driving him to deep paranoia, the final moment had arrived. Ketch's last hours were counting down. Gabriel had flown them to Michigan, Adam and Jack wered ordered and guilttripped into keeping an ever more curious growing Michael distracted.

"Wait, this isn't the blade I had before." She mentioned in an observation when Gabriel handed her a golden blade that was clearly not the one she had been training with, the one she had chosen. It was similar in length, but this one was twisted and not just a simple place, though the handle was the same and felt good in her hand. Runes were carved in it, the other one didn't have that either, it reminded her a lot of Gabriel's own.

"No, it's not, you're right." Gabriel agreed with her and then sheepishly brought a hand up to the back of his neck. "It's Michael's." She stared at him for a good moment, wondered if she had made read his lips wrong but the little mischievious glint growing stronger in golden eyes told her she hadn't read anything wrong. He was serious.

"But... why?" She wanted to know, dared a glance up to Sam who was watching their surroundings, he was the only one expecting a surprise attack by something. Eileen knew that Gabriel had his fake hounds running Ketch on a line that would get him here in time, and only then.

"Because I have a feeling this is the only way how I can get him to calm down again after I tell him the truth after this." Gabriel explained and he did it with the same look that Sam could also get when he had fucked up and knew he needed to appease his brother first before telling him. Sam usually let that be pie or Whiskey and not using his brother's blade to commit murder but the idea was the same. "This blade was destined to kill the Devil, now it gets Ketch, it's fitting." Sounded more like overkill but she wanted the bastard dead, her back pockets carried a gun and the demon knife that Sam had given her to be extra prepared, they didn't really know anymore after all if Ketch was still all human.

Though whatever he was now, this blade would surely kill it for good. She knew by now that an Archangel blade was only fully effective against an Archangel if wielded by one but whatever Ketch was now, he wasn't an Archangel and Gabriel had assured them that the blade worked against lesser beings just as well. And then even if wielded by a human.

"Does Michael know you have this?" She asked Gabriel who flashed his teeth and fully turned into the little brother who had taken his big brother's toy for playing without asking. He shook his head and then scowled when Sam elbowed him hard. "Alright. That's... okay, I guess." Eileen decided and traced a finger over the sharp edges of the blade, it was beautiful.

"He's not gonna rant _your_ ears off for taking it. Are you ready?" Gabriel wanted to know in the end and Eileen turned around to beg a still silent Sam closer. She pulled him down and kissed him, breathing him in for a good long moment before she turned back to face Gabriel once more.

"Now I am."

"Okay," he nodded and slipped his own blade into his right hand, "Sam and I won't be far. If anything goes wrong, we'll be right there." She smiled and reached out to squeeze his shoulder in a sign that she had understood. She wasn't nervous, she wasn't scared, she knew she was ready. Gabriel tugged Sam into moving and kept ahold of his arm as he walked them behind the treeline in the opposite direction of where Ketch would be coming from any moment now.

Eileen knew that the fake hellhound Gabriel had created couldn't be perceived by her, so there was no risk of her freezing because of any memories flashing up. The only ones who could see and experience the beast were Ketch as the victim and Gabriel as the controller. She shifted the blade in her hand into a better grip, it was a bit longer and heavier than Gabriel's or the ones he had trained her with but it nevertheless felt good in her hand.

If he asked nicely, she might actually be willing to later tell Michael in detail on how his blade had ended Ketch. But only if he asked nicely, he had a tendency to only truly listen to Adam and disregard the rest of them if it pleased him in the moment and Eileen did not like that in people.

Let alone in overpowered angels.

A movement in the trees ahead brought her head back in the game, and not a moment later Ketch burst into the clearing. Hair wild, clothes torn, leaves sticking to the unruly beard on his face. There was nothing more of the ever composed man in him, no more suit, just torn dirty dark pants and a white shirt that was missing more fabric than it still had. Long scratches were thinly bleeding all over his chest and arms.

He looked wildly around, spun on the spot when nothing burst out into the approaching nightly darkness with him. She could see how his chest was heaving, panic and fear was pouring off of him in waves.

And then he spotted her.

She curled the fingers of her right hand tighter around the blade behind her back and let the left one slowly form a fist around the hexbag in her pocket, a last minute addition from Rowena after she had lured the truth out of an too easily by her hands breaking Gabriel. Stumbling over his feet, Ketch immediately came running over to her, closing the short distance with long unsteady steps. "Thank God, Eileen, you have to help me." He begged of her, and she imagined he would be panting heavily, voice surely being wrecked.

"I don't think I can do that," she replied and very slowly began to close her fist around the hexbag, Rowena had many tricks up her too beautifully lace sleeves for bringing men to their knees. "You remember who I am, so you will also remember what you did to me."

"Yes, yes," he reacted and whipped his head around again for some seconds, his hands were shaking, he was tense with pure stress and terror

Just like she had been before the lights went out.

Was the fear cursing through his veins right now as well? So thick that it exchanged the blood? Was he desperate? Was he screaming for help and absolution in his mind, too?

"We can discuss that in detail later but we gotta go and..."

  
"You're not going anywhere, Ketch. Never again." She promised him and as he turned confused wide eyes onto her she squeezed her left hand and he went to his knees with a yelp, hands frantically snapping forward to catch himself against the ground. Eileen calmly took a step forward, the hexbag had taken the necessity of an actual fight, but Eileen wasn't against it, like this she had Ketch even more helpless. Letting go of the hexbag again, knowing the effects would last still, he reached out to tip up Ketch's head, soaking in the panic in his eyes. "Tell me one thing, Ketch, was I just an easy target to you? Or was that a move made explicitly against Sam?"

"Does it make a difference?" He snarled at her because he was down, because there was blood rushing through his veins and he was unable to move, nothing turned people into who they really were than fear. Crippling paralyzing fear. Like the kind she had felt when she had realized that the beast chasing her was a hellhound, like the kind she had felt when she had tripped and known this was the end.

"A big one," she said and slowly set the oldest weapon in creation against his neck, "see, taking me down because I was just one hunter whose name you had learned in dealing with the Winchesters is one thing. I can almost accept that way to becoming a target. Being considered too dangerous to someone's plan and ego because of who I am, well, that's almost flattering. I am proud of what I achieved, of the monsters I killed and the cases I solved. What I cannot accept, what I will never accept is to be used as a tool to hurt Sam. So tell me, what was it?"

"No easier way to get the Wichesters' attention than killing someone close to Sam Winchester's heart," Ketch spit out and only shut up because she pressed Michael's blade harder against his throat. "Do you really think you can kill me?"

"Do you doubt my will or my skill?" She demanded to know and didn't leave him room to answer, he was shaking, clearly fighting against the spell forcing him down. "Because let me tell you, my will won't stop me. And my skill won't either, this time there is no coming back with any tricks, Ketch. Even whatever creatures of Hell you might call your friends can't bring you back when you're being killed by an Archangel blade."

And he froze.

"Yeah, that's right. I made new friends since I died, too. It's really astonishing how real a Trickster can make things appear, isn't that? Gabriel sends his greeting, he was a great helper. And if you think so much at coming back again, I'm gonna let the real owner of this blade decide what to do with you, and I can assure you, Ketch, Michael will make it hurt." She drew the blade back and kicked him in the chest, sending him sprawling out onto his back. "You will not hurt anyone in my family ever again. Any last words that will right away be as forgotten as you will be?" She wanted to know as she crouched at his side, leveled the blade with his heart.

She never got why the killers in movies went for the throat, didn't people know how messy you got like that.

Ketch glared at her but when he opened his mouth, Eileen brought the blade down, a few gurgling breaths later, Ketch grew still.

It was done.

He was dead.

\--

Eileen laughed when Sam made a face at his hands and then dropped back onto the towel with surely a sound of defeat falling from his lips. She laughed until there were tears in her eyes and then reached for the wet wipes she had packed for almost exactly this reason. She got some out and grabbed his hands that were once more covered in sunscreen and sand because he had overbalanced while getting her back lotioned up again and dropped his hand into the sand.

Just like this morning when he had playfully collapsed after the waterfight they had had and missed the towel by a landslide. He was too adorable when he was this slap happy. "Stop being so clumsy," she signed at him when she wasn't giggling too hard anymore and was done with his hands. Sam gave her a grin and spread his arms in a silent invitation, Eileen gladly took him up on it and laid down against him, sliding a leg over one of his.

They were alone as far as the eye could see. Despite Gabriel's many many offers, Eileen and Sam had both insisted on a normal beach vacation, so Dean had driven them to the airport and they had taken a plane to California. There were no school holidays anywhere and on most days they really were alone on the private beach of the resort. And both of them enjoyed every second it. They had taken a hike and lost time until the sun was setting with kissing and staring into each other's eyes on the plateau overlooking the bay. They had taken bike rides into the closest town to eat ice cream and walk along the shops.

But most of their time they spent being lazy on the beach, soaking up the sun and getting lost in each other as often as possible.

Just like now where she curled up against the tall frame of the man she loved so much, the man she was gonna built herself a future with. Sam turned his face against hers, both of their eyes closed, his arms around her and her hand drawing patterns on his chest.

Eileen was free, she was alive and unburdened.

She was happy.


End file.
